Abstract
In setting up and maintaining the group-analytic situation — the medium in which the therapeutic processes evolve — the selection of the patients who make up such a group is, of course, of the utmost importance. The highest therapeutic potential rests in a group with “the optimal span between polar (personality) types” ··· “a mixed bag of diagnoses and disturbances”. (Foulkes and Anthony 1957). In selecting such a mixed bag, the group-analyst will find himself extra cautious and attentive where, in the diagnostic interview, he comes upon the ego-weak; the patient with a borderline personality organisation (Kernberg 1968); the patient who displays the defensive organisation of an excessively immature self; and he who hides his mutilated self from himself and his world by living with another’s self. The need and greed which emerges from the very start of the therapeutic contact, together with an emptiness in the relationship and extreme communication difficulty — these and the many other so capably and thoroughly investigated and documented phenomena of the narcissistically severely injured (Kohut, Kernberg i.a) militate against inclusion in a group-analytic therapy group of the classical type.
Keywords
- Therapeutic Contact
- Optimal Span
- High Therapeutic Potential
- Genuine Feeling
- Borderline Personality Organisation
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Battegay, R., The Concept of Narcissistic Group Self Group Analysis 1976 IX/3
Bion, W., Attacks on Linking — A Theory of Thinking 1962. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 1962.
Foulkes, S.H., Group Analytic Psychotherapy (1975) London Interface Book.
Foulkes, S.H. and E.J. Anthony, Group Psychotherapy (1957) Penguin Books.
Kernberg, Otto, The Treatment of Patients with Borderline Personality Organisation. International Journal of Psychoanalysis (1968) 49, 600.
Kohut, H., The Analysis of Self (1971) Monograph Series — The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child No. 4. Hogarth Press.
Leal, Rita, Group Analysis 1/2 June 1968.
Little, Margaret, Counter Transference. British Journal of Medical Psychology (1960), 33, 29.
Miller, Alice. Das Drama des Begabten Kindes etc. 1979 Surkamp Verlag Frankfurt.
Ogden, T., Projective Identification (1979) International Journal for Psychoanalysis IV.
Pines, M., Basic Principles: Changes and Trends. 1972. Paper given at the Second European Symposium on Group Analysis and printed in GAIPAC August 1972 V/2.
Schindler, W., The Borderline Syndrome. Group Analysis Aug. 1978.
Schindler, W., The Role of the Mother in Group Psychotherapy. International Journal for Group Analytic Psychotherapy (1957/66)
Winnicott, D.W. Countertransference. British Journal of Psychology (1960) 33.17.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1982 Plenum Press, New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hearst, L.E. (1982). Restoring the Impaired Self as an Essential Corrective Experience in Group Analysis. In: Pines, M., Rafaelsen, L. (eds) The Individual and the Group. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8154-9_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8154-9_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-8156-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-8154-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive